SPORTSBIZ -- KEVIN KLEPS

Data-driven teams like the Cavaliers are lead players in the analytics revolution

Blog Entry: September 24, 2013 10:27 AM | Author: KEVIN KLEPS

Kerry Bubolz, the Cavaliers' president of business operations, made sure to pay close attention to the giant, fire-breathing scoreboard at Quicken Loans Arena last season.

Six SportVu data-tracking cameras were installed at The Q in December 2012, and the Cavs began using some of the advanced stats the technology provided on the Q-Tube and via their social media channels during the final three months of the season.

“When we would put stuff up on Q-Tube, I would watch people's reaction and I would see people discussing it,” Bubolz said of the advanced stats. “You know it's interesting for people when they see something and then they start talking about it.”

Last season, the Cavs, in Bubolz's words, were “real basic” in doling out the numbers.

They posted such stats as dribbles, touches and the average miles each player was running per game.

This season, in addition to using key numbers to lure corporate sponsors (The Hustle Stat of the Game, brought to you by FirstEnergy?), the Cavs will make the advanced numbers a part of their television and radio broadcasts, and display a wider array of stats in the arena.

Some of Bubolz's favorites:

How far and how fast a player has run during a game, his maximum speed, touches, points per touch, touch locations, rebound chances, rebound percentage, contested and uncontested rebounds, secondary assists (aka hockey assists), free throw assists (when a pass leads to a player making one or two free throws), potential assists (when a pass leads to a player missing an easy shot or free throws), passing relationships (which combination is most effective from a scoring standpoint), and contested and uncontested shooting percentages.

“We used to have interns come in and count hockey assists,” said Tad Carper, the Cavs' senior vice president of communications. “It was manual heavy. Interns would sit there for a game and try to do it manually. Now, we've got something obviously much better.”

And we should expect to see a lot more of it now that the NBA is paying STATS to install the cameras at every arena, along with provide detailed, real-time reports of the numbers.

“We did a lot of the more basic stuff (last season),” Bubolz said. “My whole thing is let's walk before we run. Let's do this thing the right way.”

The cameras are present to help the teams take a next-level approach to their preparation, and eventually coaches could be using some of the real-time numbers as part of their in-game strategy.

The Cavs, to their credit, also see fan engagement and business benefits to the numbers — an approach that might not be so obvious to many NBA teams.

“We want to make sure there is coordination between business and basketball and what we are presenting from a fan end,” Bubolz said. “I think that's very important. And secondly, whether it's our player or a visiting player, we never want to put a player in a negative light. That's not what you'll see.

“We may be tracking information that doesn't necessarily make a player in a specific instance look that great, but we're not going to push that out to the fans,” Bubolz added. “We're looking for information that is unique, that's different, that's innovative and that can speak to a casual fan that is hopefully interested. I know I found it to be extremely interesting.”

This season, the NBA is picking up the tab, which is the “low six figures” per year, according to Bubolz.

Last season, half of the league's 30 teams were already paying for the service — and the Cavs were among STATS' most eager subscribers.

“We signed up for the max right from the start,” Carper said with a laugh. “We might have been the only team to do that. They made a heck of a pitch, I guess, because we bought in at the maximum level right from the start and immediately sort of got it. One of the things that is very culturesque for Dan Gilbert is he's constantly preaching 'Dream big, dream big. Don't look here and now, look down the road. What can this be?'

“We kind of take that into everything we look at,” Carper continued. “Right from the start, when we sat down and started looking at this, everybody started saying, 'Holy cow! This is unbelievable. What can be done with this?' We don't know exactly what we're going to do yet, but we know it's huge. We sort of went all in right from the start.”

As we wrote in the story that was included in Crain's print edition this week, the Cavs hired highly regarded analytics consultant Benjamin Alamar last year.

The Cavs have three employees whose only job, according to vice president of basketball operations David Griffin, is to break down the numbers produced by the SportVu service.

Some teams are more eager than others to see the stats, which is to be expected.

But Brian Kopp, a senior vice president at STATS and the man who made such a successful sales pitch to the Cavs last year, attributes the rise in analytics, in part, to the new generation of owners.

“There always will be teams that will be slow to embrace it,” Kopp said. “A lot of the new owners are data driven from their jobs in industry. All the companies Dan Gilbert owns are very data driven. Sports is a very big business, and these owners are treating it more like a business — whereas in decades past, it was more of a hobby.

“I think it will be most powerful for a coaching staff,” Kopp continued. “Some have resisted the analytics. They view analytics as a separate thing. I try to tell them, 'It's part of what you do. It doesn't have to be a separate thing.' It should be when you're talking about your players, this becomes part of the conversation.

“Each organization is very different. Some teams we've been working with for several years and the coaches never knew it existed. There's been a lot more attention paid to it. At halftime, don't you want to know how many times a player got the ball in the post? Don't you want to know how many rebound chances your team had?”

That information is now readily available.

And smart organizations such as the Cavs will make sure the fans get to see some of it, too.

In Ubaldo (and Mickey) we trust

This story by Paul Hoynes of The Plain Dealer does an excellent job of explaining the outstanding work of Tribe pitching coach Mickey Callaway.

I met Callaway when he was the pitching coach of the Class A Lake County Captains in 2010, and after speaking with him for 10 minutes I felt like I had a much better grasp of the game.

Callaway's work with Ubaldo Jimenez, as Hoynes illustrates, has produced some stellar results.

On May 22, Jimenez allowed six runs on seven hits in four innings of the Tribe's 11-7 loss to Detroit at Progressive Field. The defeat dropped Jimenez to 3-3, and his other season stats were much worse — a 6.04 ERA, 1.39 WHIP and an average of 4.4 walks per nine innings.

At the All-Star break, Jimenez's record and ERA were better (7-4, 4.56 ERA), but his WHIP and walks per nine innings had increased (1.49 and 4.8, respectively).

In the second half, however, he has been among the best pitchers in the game.

Jimenez is 5-5 with a 1.77 ERA in 11 starts since the break. In that span, he has posted a 1.15 WHIP, struck out 80 batters in 71 innings and has reduced his walks to 2.9 per nine innings.

In September, as the Tribe has vaulted into the second wild-card spot in the American League, Jimenez is 3-0 with a 0.64 ERA, 0.99 WHIP and 31 Ks in 28 1/3 innings.

The excellent run is great for the Indians, and it will soon pad Jimenez's wallet.

Now it's a mutual option the Indians surely would like to exercise, and one Jimenez likely would decline to test his value on the free-agent market.

He can add to his worth by throwing two more gems this week.

Not only have the September schedule-makers been kind to the Tribe (the Astros, White Sox and Twins to close the season), the team has lined up Jimenez to start two of the final six games.

In a twist many of us didn't see coming a couple of months ago, there might not be another player you'd rather see on the mound for the Indians with a postseason berth on the line.

You can follow me on Twitter for sports information, but not an analysis of my contested and uncontested shooting percentages in pickup basketball.

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